Investigations with soils, containing high and low levels of zinc and cadmium, showed that mycorrhizal infection generally enhance metal uptake to the roots of lettuce plants but not to the shoots. In highly contaminated soils, metal concentration was always decreased in shoots of mycorrhizal plants while the concentration in roots was increased, when compared to non mycorrhizal plants. Metal retention in mycorrhizal root systems can be attributed to a surface complexation of heavy metals with cystein containing ligands of fungal proteins. Therefore mycorrhizal infection may enhance root/shoot barrier of the host plants for toxic heavy metals and may play a role in heavy metal resistance of the plants. © 1990.